


Lost

by Res



Series: I Love You [5]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-12-16
Updated: 2004-12-16
Packaged: 2017-10-20 23:05:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/218066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Res/pseuds/Res
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Ron bared his teeth in a vicious parody of a smile. 'Don't give me that, Besom. I know he was brought here. And I know they took him again, not an hour ago.' He paused, leaning forward over the table, and his voice deepened, nearly growling out the question. 'Now <i>where is he?</i> Where have they taken Harry Potter?' "</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lost

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aloria](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=aloria).



> Disclaimer: Not mine. But if she ever wants to get rid of Ron, I'll take him! No profit made, please don't sue me -- All I got's a couple dogs that you wouldn't like much anyway.
> 
> Notes: I promised a drabble to whomever broke the code on Latent (at http://www.livejournal.com/users/resqdog51/274088.html) first. It was a tie. lj user angel423 and lj user aloria both did it at almost the same time, so I gave them both drabbles. This is lj user aloria's and she requested Dark!Ron, although, like lj user angel423's, its come out a bit long to be a 'drabble'. I'm so sorry it's taken so long to get here... I had to fuss with Dark!Ron for a bit, and then the FQF started up and I got swamped with work and life. But!! Here it is! I hope you like it, and I hope Ron is Dark enough for you!
> 
> Edited to add: I realised this could fit in the I Love You series, so I'm adding it there for the AO3 archive.

_**Lost**_  
They slipped into the dusty little alchemy shoppe as the last customer left. Dean paused only long enough to lock the door and turn the sign to 'Closed', before following Ron and Seamus toward the counter at the back of the room. The proprietor looked up from his ledgers as Ron put a hand on the counter between them -- and bolted as soon as he saw who it was.

Seamus cut him off at the end of the counter, the compact little Irishman moving quickly toward their quarry, hands outstretched, and turned him back. The fleeing wizard spun around -- as if to run for the other end of the counter and escape that way -- and came face to face with Dean. The tall black man smiled, white teeth shining in a friendly way against dark chocolate skin, and grabbed the man, shoving him backward into Seamus' arms with brisk efficiency.

Ron lifted his hand from the counter, brushing too-long red hair off his forehead, observing the terrified wizard held firmly between his two friends with cool, moss-green eyes. Quietly, he said, "Hello, Edgar. We have a few questions we'd like to ask you."

Dean and Seamus shifted their grips on their prisoner, wrenching his arms behind him, and quickly frog-marched him into the flat at the back of the store. With a last, quick look around the dusty little shoppe, to make sure no alarms had been raised, Ron followed them, pulling the door shut behind him as he went.

Turning, he looked over the small, one room flat, noting the entrances and exits, the tiny, grimy kitchen where Dean and Seamus had deposited Edgar Besom at a small table, and the ramshackle bed tucked into the opposite corner. His eyes lingered for a long moment on the ropes bound around the legs of the bed, ends trailing across filthy wrinkled sheets, before returning his cold gaze to the man at the table.

Dean and Seamus stood on either side of their prisoner, ready to stop any escape attempts as Ron approached. Grabbing a rickety chair, Ron pulled it up to the table and settled into it gingerly, making sure it would hold his weight before addressing the sweating man across from him.

"Where is he?" Ron's voice was low and as cold as his eyes as he asked the question.

"I - I don't know what you're talking about!" Edgar's frightened eyes darted around the room, avoiding Ron's gaze. "There's no one else here!"

Ron bared his teeth in a vicious parody of a smile. "Don't give me that, Besom. I know he was brought here. And I know they took him again, not an hour ago." He paused, leaning forward over the table, and his voice deepened, nearly growling out the question. "Now _where is he?_ Where have they taken Harry Potter?"

Edgar jumped as Seamus' hands came down on his shoulders, firmly pushing him back into the chair. He swallowed, then seemed to gain some courage from somewhere. His tone held a quavering note of bravado as he answered, "Where you'll not find him, Weasley! A Muggle-lover like you will _never_ defeat our Lord's plans!" He didn't even flinch when Dean's wand suddenly appeared at his throat. "Your magic does not compare to that of the Dark Lord!"

Ron stared at him for a long moment, struggling with his temper and with the despair that threatened to drown him. Temper won and, suddenly, he stood up. "Our magic doesn't scare you, Besom?" White teeth were bared again, in a feral snarl. "You _will_ tell me what I want to know." Ron looked at his compatriots. "Hold him down -- put a Sticking Charm on him if you have to. I don't want him to move." Spinning on his heel, Ron strode sharply to over to the drawers under the counters of the small kitchenette and began rummaging through them.

Dean and Seamus shared a confused look and then Dean left Finnigan to secure Edgar to the chair. Stepping up to Ron, he asked, in a low voice, "What have you got in your mind, Weasley?"

Ron made a small sound of triumph as he pulled out a small paring knife, then dug a bit more and came up with a whetstone. Spitting on the whetstone, he began stropping the knife across it, turning to face the room as he answered, simply, "I'm going to make him talk, Thomas." His eyes fixed coldly on the man sitting, frozen, at the table, Seamus' hands clamped firmly onto his shoulders, holding him in place.

Dean's eyes widened and he stepped around in front of Ron, blocking his view and his path toward the terrified wizard Seamus was holding down. "What are you going to do, Ron?"

Ron looked at him, eyes icy cold with barely controlled emotion. "I'm going to skin him. Every time he refuses to answer, or gives me an answer I don't like, I'm going to cut off another piece, and another, and another -- until either he's told me what I want to know, or he has no skin left." Coolly, Ron took a sideways step around Dean and started toward the table again.

Dean gaped for a moment, then threw himself in front of Ron again. "Ron! No! Don't! You can't be serious!" His voice cracked slightly in his agitation. "You can't skin him!"

Ron stopped, then turned and met Dean's eyes intently. Taking a breath, he answered, softly, "Dean -- he was _here_. Harry was _here,_ not an hour ago. You know it. I know it. And," he nodded at the man seated at the table, "he knows it. And he knows where they went." A long moment of silence, as Dean absorbed that, then, the barest hint of anguish slipping from his rigid control and sliding into his voice, heating his eyes briefly, Ron whispered, "...if it was Finnigan we were chasing, if it had been _Seamus_ they'd taken...we are less than an hour behind them, Dean!"

Dean met his eyes for several long seconds, then looked over his shoulder to where Seamus stood, hands still on Besom's shoulders. Seamus met his gaze unflinchingly, trust and belief shining from his eyes, countered in equal measure by determination and sheer Irish temper. Dean looked back at Ron, straightening slowly, then stepped aside. Coolly, he pulled out his wand and cast a privacy charm on the room, and then cast an additional silencing charm. Looking back at Ron, he asked, "Shall I stick his arm to the table for you, or would you prefer Seamus and I just held him down?"

Edgar whimpered, struggling to get free from Seamus' restraining hands as Ron answered, "Stick his arm down. I want to do this slowly," before settling in the chair next to Besom again. Ron looked at him, then, slowly and deliberately, turned the newly-sharpened knife edge-down on the whetstone and dragged it down the length of the stone. Then he put the stone aside and leaned forward, paring knife in hand.

"Now, Besom. Where. Did. They. Take. Harry?"

In the end, it took an entire arm before Edgar Besom began to talk.

On his way out the door, Seamus looked back and shook his head at the mess. "Ron, we should clean this up. Someone might come back to check on him -- they'd know we're after them." _They'd run faster -- they might hurt or kill Harry,_ was left unsaid, clear in ominous implication.

Ron turned back and surveyed the room, making note of the scraps of flesh scattered around the kitchen floor, the blood smearing the table and chairs, the paring knife stuck nearly hilt deep into the table. His eyes lingered for a long moment on the writhing mass of raw meat bound to the bed with the ropes left there earlier. Ron's stomach turned as he recalled what they'd been told the ropes had been used for previously. Cold rage welled up inside him and he looked back at Seamus and bared his teeth in a mockery of a smile. "Don't worry about it, Seamus. I'll take care of it. I'll meet you outside."

He waited just long enough for Finnigan and Thomas to clear the front door before turning around and pulling out his wand. He glanced over his shoulder and met their gazes, then, with a vicious flourish of his wand, cast an _**Incendio**_ charm in the far corner of the room. The charm exploded under the force of his fury, finally loosed after days of tight control. He paused only long enough to make certain it caught well, then, with a flick of his wand and a vicious mutter of 'Quietus', he threw a silencing charm on the squealing mass of blood and meat that used to be Edgar Besom, before turning and striding from the room.

Closing the shoppe door behind him, Ron looked at Dean and Seamus, nodded briefly, and Apparated away with a loud *POP*, intent on the next link of the chain bringing him closer to Harry, emotions once more held coldly in check. Dean and Seamus paused only long enough to share a kiss, then, with a double *BANG*, Apparated after him.


End file.
